He has a point that democracy really needs to step up its game. We’re not exactly having a good run at the moment.

President acts like a corrupt asshat, almost immediately comes under investigation, there have been 23 indictments so far.

The alternative to democracy is not letting people have a say in government, and allowing rulers to rule for long periods until they pass down power to favoured successors or are violently overthrown. Both of those things are absolutely terrible for the health and safety of a society.

You don’t have to convince me. But I think it’s a bad sign if defenders of democracy can only get defensive when they have to face mistakes.

Is it really that hard to say we dropped the ball here, badly, and we need to do better, rather than immediately going to whataboutism about China? Yes, they have problems. That in no way contradicts the fact that we need to do better.

I feel like you have it backwards. The intent of my comment was to say democracy hasn't dropped the ball. Trump is massively and obviously corrupt, so he was massively and obviously investigated. Where's the whataboutism? If anything I was responding to reverse-whataboutism (self-deprecation from people in democracies when reading about 'N' being censored in China).

We're actually having an extraordinary run. Bill Gates keeps trying to point this out everywhere he goes, nobody appears willing to listen to facts.

The median standard of living across the democratic world is at an all-time high. Things have never been better in the liberal world.